CMLL Tuesday Review: The Audazity

As I told you all when I previewed this CMLL Tuesday show yesterday…this was a one match show. It actually almost turned into a two match show thanks to the semi-main, but as that wasn’t entirely good we’ll just count the Audaz-Tritón encounter. And what an encounter it was, with both luchadores doing what they do best in delivering high flying thrills that made us forget about an otherwise forgettable show. Unfortunately I have to review the rest of the show before we get to that match so…yeah. Hey, the sooner I get through this the sooner we can talk about said match. So without any further gilding of the lily and with no more ado, let’s get started.

El Coyote & Grako defeated Leono & Sonic two falls to one

If you watched this match and came away thinking Sonic the Luchador wasn’t the best dude in this match, I have to question your eyesight. Or what you think is good lucha libre. Or if this whole match was so boring that everything looked bad; you get the picture! The point is Sonic looked to be in another league compared to Leono, Coyote and Grako, and that’s without him even getting that much to do (a well a having one minor botch on a moonsault/arm drag attempt). He wasn’t quite Audaz but he showed enough to make you think he should be far, far away from matches like these. Unfortunately he wasn’t, Coyote and Grako weren’t even close to their best and Leono was so bad he’s reached the stage where he both looks like 2018 Hulk Hogan and wrestles like 2018 Hulk Hogan. All that was missing was inexcusable racism and I would be telling you Leono is, in fact, Hulk Hogan. When that’s the second biggest thing the match has going for you, the match is no good. Poor Sonic; hopefully he finds his way out of this slot one day so he can show what he can really do.

In the word of Peter Griffin, it’s exactly what it looked like. Alright that wasn’t the direct quote but close enough. The match actually did have a bit of a rhythm when La Guerrera and Metálica were involved; the latter isn’t always consistent but has those flashes of brilliance that make you think there’s something there while the former picked up right where she left off from a few Friday’s ago. It actually felt like CMLL didn’t give Guerrera enough to do, which is a shame because she managed to pull off some Máscara Dorada rope walk, double jump moves with Seductora of all people. After that the only thing I got out of this match is that Reyna Isis really needs to stop doing that corner dropkick. She’s improved, but she looks so clumsy doing that it’s as if she’s Buster Keaton in a screwball comedy. Get rid of that, keep the other stuff and she’ll seem a lot better I think.

Put this match on a Friday and I think you may have had something. Unfortunately this was Tuesday so you got a little bit of effort from everyone involved, some really nice, smooth moments at times and not a whole lot else. And that’s really it! I know I described the semi-main of this show in my preview as merely existing but dear Grodd if this match didn’t fit the description as well.

Lightning Match

Tritón defeated Audaz

I used a lot of gifs when previewing this match yesterday sports fans…and we’re going to use even more right now because HOLY FRIGGIN HELL THIS MATCH!

The only flaw in this one, minus Audaz losing (I’m happy for Tritón but it was a weird call given where both guys seem to be heading) and the Canadian Destroyer if you’re not a fan of such move, is that CMLL shortchanged these guys something fierce by giving them only six and a half minutes. It’s not surprising, but it’s incredibly disheartening when this match gets only 6:30 while mediocre bullshit like Cuatrero vs. Mephisto gets the full ten. But even that lousiness couldn’t contain Tritón and Audaz. They traded big dives, death bumps (yes, both Tritón and Audaz missed dives in this match), spectacular big moves at the end (the aforementioned Canadian Destroyer by Audaz and a mouth watering walk up Spanish Fly off the top by Tritón) and, in perhaps the biggest stroke of genius, near misses in the middle section. I thought the story of the match would be the real life struggle of both guys trying to catch the other on big moves. Instead the actual story was these two high flyers being so evenly matched that neither guy for a stretch could hit a move on the other. It was really clever and really well done, especially when sandwiched between the dives, death bumps and finishing move. I think the Guerrero Maya-Hechicero Lightning Match and the Dragón Lee-Carístico Lightning Match from earlier this year were a tad better overall but that’s mostly cause they were given more time. For what Audaz and Tritón were given, this was a fantastic effort and probably would’ve been an instant classic if it had gone the full ten.

I have seen many a Blue Panther special in my day but this may have been the Blue Panther special at its apex. Or it would’ve been if this match was on the level of what we got from the Panthers a few weeks ago. There was definitely something missing here, likely due to the fact that guys like Kráneo and Ephesto only have so much to give. Even still the match had some nice energy to it and a structure only Blue Panther could come up with, as the third fall differed from the norm to feature Luciferno and Blue Panther getting eliminated, followed by a prolonged Stuka/Hechicero sequence before Kráneo and Ephesto brought it home. I enjoyed it. I would’ve enjoyed it more if the match had featured some more dynamic performers, but considering I expected this match to merely exist it was pretty fun all things considered.

I have seen some CMLL shows where the sound has cut out for a bit and I’ve seen some matches where the sound was out for half the match. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the first time I’ve ever seen a CMLL match all the way through without any sort of sound. You could hear more going on in the scene from 2001 where Frank Poole floats aimlessly through space than you could this, the first ever silent film match in lucha libre history. Not really but for the sake of this joke let’s go with that.

Frankly the only person who benefited from the sound being off appeared to be Mistico; we didn’t have to hear him get booed out of Arena Mexico in favor of Negro Casas. Otherwise it was a detriment in several ways; without the crowd heat it was hard to measure how this match was (I would say alright but nothing special), we missed out on the entertaining post match dancing from Casas, Felino and Mr. Niebla and most importantly we missed out on Casas’ interview at the booth! Damn you CMLL going all silent on us. At the end of the day that will be the legacy of this otherwise forgettable occurrence. A match happened, stuff was going on and not a single one of us could hear a lick of it.

That’s game sports fans. See you tomorrow night for the Lucha Underground review. Till then!

About The Author

Eric Mutter is a straight edge nerd with a love for Pepsi and a punk rock song in his heart. His friends may or may not refer to him as Cult Icon (or Colt Iken when they're doing Scott Steiner impressions). He's also good at writing; or so I hear.

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